DARPA Phraselator Device Bridges Language Divides

WASHINGTON,
April 25, 2003 – Non-linguist U.S. troops in Afghanistan and
Iraq have been able to communicate with local citizens by
using a paperback-book-sized device called the
phraselator.

Co-developed by the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency and private contractors, the phraselator
uses computer chips to translate English phrases into as
many as 30 foreign language equivalents, noted Army Lt. Col.
James Bass, the project manager.

Users either speak into
the device, which translates the English into the
foreign-equivalent phrase, Bass explained, or they can punch
a button to call up the desired phrase.

"The
English-speaking operator can speak from a series of phrases
ranging from just a few dozen to as high as 3,500 phrases,"
Bass pointed out, "characterized by such issues as force
protection, medical triage and medical first-
response."

The device was originally developed for
military medical usage, Bass pointed out. He said newer
devices contain phraseology on refugee reunification and
searches for weapons of mass destruction. They even issue
queries about infrastructure requirements, such as "Do you
need water?" "Do you need electricity?" the lieutenant
colonel noted.

And an improved phraselator with better
sound quality is now being readied for fielding, Bass
said.

Civil affairs troops, Bass pointed out, can hook up
a phraselator into a bullhorn-amplifier to ask locals what
sort of humanitarian supplies they may need, while infantry
soldiers can query on the whereabouts of enemy weapons
caches or the placement of land mines.

The phraselator
"looks just like a Palm [Pilot] on steroids," Bass remarked,
noting it's compact for field use, weighing in at about 20
ounces, with dimensions of 4- inches-wide by
6-inches-tall.

In 1999, Bass noted, DARPA began working
with private industry to develop a translator for military
medical usage. Early versions of these devices, he added,
were laptop-computer-sized.

Bass said the civilian
contractor, Marine Acoustics, came back to DARPA with the
suggestion to make a hand-held, tactical version of the
phraselator.

The smaller phraselator was demonstrated and
validated for use during the Victory Strike military
exercise held in Poland on Sept. 10, 2001, Bass
recalled.

Terrorists attacked the United States on Sept.
11, 2001. Seven days later, Bass said he successfully
petitioned DARPA to start fast-track procurement of the
phraselator, including an improvement program.

Bass said
the phraselator was brought to Afghanistan by U.S. troops in
February 2002. Reports from the field on the device "were
glowing," he noted.

>From that field experience, follow-on
devices were made water and sand resistant, as well as more
powerful, Bass remarked.

"Feedback is the breakfast of
champions," the lieutenant colonel asserted, noting that
such input has also resulted in larger, easier-to-use
buttons on the device.

Today, project Babylon -- a
three-year DARPA program -- encompasses all military
phraselator development, Bass pointed out. The goal, he
noted, is a two-way phraselator that can translate
respondents' answers to users' queries.

This two-way
phraselator has been publicly demonstrated at an
international linguist organization's annual meeting in
Berlin, and to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee,
Bass noted.

The improved device is slated for
demonstration to senior U.S. Special Operations officials
and to senior DARPA leadership.

"If it's ready for 'prime
time,' we produce some prototypes and get the units out,"
Bass explained.

However, if the new phraselator "needs a
little more tweaking," Bass pointed out, then, "we will
still deliver it to selected, enthusiastic people who will"
critique the device.

Large-scale production of the more
complex device, he noted, "will be on hold until we get all
the bugs out, and will depend on Service interest in
purchasing quantities of the devices."

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